Iran has earmarked for punishment at least six witnesses who gave evidence at a public tribunal investigating a deadly crackdown on nationwide protests in November 2019, human rights groups said on Thursday.
The six were among 55 witnesses who gave evidence via video link to public hearings of a London-based tribunal, which has heard how protesters were arrested, tortured and killed, a coalition of 15 groups said.
Some of the hearings were streamed and could be seen live in Iran.
The hearings – known as the Aban Tribunal – were set up to try to hold to account senior regime officials and security forces involved in a brutal five-day operation to quell the demonstrations.
They were sparked by rising fuel prices but developed into a broader protest against the regime. At least 323 people were killed in the purge.
The tribunal started its work in November last year and reprisals started shortly afterwards against those who gave evidence and their families who remain in Iran.
They included arrests, prosecution for security-related offences, threatening telephone calls and raids on their homes, said the groups that include Amnesty International and the Campaign to Free Political Prisoners in Iran.
Two thirds of those who give evidence in person hid their identities using masks and sunglasses. But the six witnesses and their families selected by authorities spoke openly about their experiences.
They included one Iran-based witness and five others who fled the country after the protests but whose family remained behind.
The groups said the regime had targeted Amin Ansarifar, whose son Farzad was killed by security forces during protests in Behbahan, western Iran.
He was summoned for repeated questioning by intelligence officials in the weeks after he gave evidence at a “court of the enemy”. His home was raided and both Amin and another son, Arman, were this month sentenced to three months in prison with a five-year travel ban for “spreading propaganda” against the regime.
His daughter was in February sentenced to more than four years in prison after she posted on Instagram about her brother’s death. She has yet to be summoned to serve her sentence.
“The authorities have ordered relatives in Iran to cut ties with tribunal witnesses based abroad and publicly denounce their testimonies or ‘face consequences’ including detention and other harm to them and their family members, including children,” the 15 groups said in their statement.
Probe into crimes against humanity
The tribunal is investigating crimes against humanity, including murder, torture and rape committed during the protests and in its aftermath, with 160 officials identified as suspects.
They include prison guards and security officials identified on mobile phone footage firing on crowds. Others include high-level officials including President Ebrahim Raisi, who was head of the judiciary at the time.
The tribunal has heard evidence about widespread torture in prisons, the rounding up of dissidents after the protests and harrowing details about a woman who was shot from behind while helping to bandage the wounds of a young protester.
The backers of the tribunal take as their inspiration the Russell Tribunal from the 1960s, which investigated the US intervention in Vietnam, and the Iran Tribunal from 2012, which examined the massacre of thousands of prisoners in the late 1980s.
Organisers hope that it will lead to a full investigation by the UN and sanctions imposed on those chiefly responsible.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Fourth Arab Economic and Social Development Summit
As he spoke, Mr Aboul Gheit repeatedly referred to the need to tackle issues affecting the welfare of people across the region both in terms of preventing conflict and in pushing development.
Lebanon is scheduled to host the fourth Arab Economic and Social Development Summit in January that will see regional leaders gather to tackle the challenges facing the Middle East. The last such summit was held in 2013. Assistant Secretary-General Hossam Zaki told The National that the Beirut Summit “will be an opportunity for Arab leaders to discuss solely economic and social issues, the conference will not focus on political concerns such as Palestine, Syria or Libya". He added that its slogan will be “the individual is at the heart of development”, adding that it will focus on all elements of human capital.
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Babumoshai Bandookbaaz
Director: Kushan Nandy
Starring: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Bidita Bag, Jatin Goswami
Three stars
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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EXPATS
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Honeymoonish
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Red flags
- Promises of high, fixed or 'guaranteed' returns.
- Unregulated structured products or complex investments often used to bypass traditional safeguards.
- Lack of clear information, vague language, no access to audited financials.
- Overseas companies targeting investors in other jurisdictions - this can make legal recovery difficult.
- Hard-selling tactics - creating urgency, offering 'exclusive' deals.
Courtesy: Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Dhadak 2
Director: Shazia Iqbal
Starring: Siddhant Chaturvedi, Triptii Dimri
Rating: 1/5
More on animal trafficking
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
OPINIONS ON PALESTINE & ISRAEL
More from Rashmee Roshan Lall
Know your cyber adversaries
Cryptojacking: Compromises a device or network to mine cryptocurrencies without an organisation's knowledge.
Distributed denial-of-service: Floods systems, servers or networks with information, effectively blocking them.
Man-in-the-middle attack: Intercepts two-way communication to obtain information, spy on participants or alter the outcome.
Malware: Installs itself in a network when a user clicks on a compromised link or email attachment.
Phishing: Aims to secure personal information, such as passwords and credit card numbers.
Ransomware: Encrypts user data, denying access and demands a payment to decrypt it.
Spyware: Collects information without the user's knowledge, which is then passed on to bad actors.
Trojans: Create a backdoor into systems, which becomes a point of entry for an attack.
Viruses: Infect applications in a system and replicate themselves as they go, just like their biological counterparts.
Worms: Send copies of themselves to other users or contacts. They don't attack the system, but they overload it.
Zero-day exploit: Exploits a vulnerability in software before a fix is found.
Sinopharm vaccine explained
The Sinopharm vaccine was created using techniques that have been around for decades.
“This is an inactivated vaccine. Simply what it means is that the virus is taken, cultured and inactivated," said Dr Nawal Al Kaabi, chair of the UAE's National Covid-19 Clinical Management Committee.
"What is left is a skeleton of the virus so it looks like a virus, but it is not live."
This is then injected into the body.
"The body will recognise it and form antibodies but because it is inactive, we will need more than one dose. The body will not develop immunity with one dose," she said.
"You have to be exposed more than one time to what we call the antigen."
The vaccine should offer protection for at least months, but no one knows how long beyond that.
Dr Al Kaabi said early vaccine volunteers in China were given shots last spring and still have antibodies today.
“Since it is inactivated, it will not last forever," she said.
What are the GCSE grade equivalents?
- Grade 9 = above an A*
- Grade 8 = between grades A* and A
- Grade 7 = grade A
- Grade 6 = just above a grade B
- Grade 5 = between grades B and C
- Grade 4 = grade C
- Grade 3 = between grades D and E
- Grade 2 = between grades E and F
- Grade 1 = between grades F and G
Other acts on the Jazz Garden bill
Sharrie Williams
The American singer is hugely respected in blues circles due to her passionate vocals and songwriting. Born and raised in Michigan, Williams began recording and touring as a teenage gospel singer. Her career took off with the blues band The Wiseguys. Such was the acclaim of their live shows that they toured throughout Europe and in Africa. As a solo artist, Williams has also collaborated with the likes of the late Dizzy Gillespie, Van Morrison and Mavis Staples.
Lin Rountree
An accomplished smooth jazz artist who blends his chilled approach with R‘n’B. Trained at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, DC, Rountree formed his own band in 2004. He has also recorded with the likes of Kem, Dwele and Conya Doss. He comes to Dubai on the back of his new single Pass The Groove, from his forthcoming 2018 album Stronger Still, which may follow his five previous solo albums in cracking the top 10 of the US jazz charts.
Anita Williams
Dubai-based singer Anita Williams will open the night with a set of covers and swing, jazz and blues standards that made her an in-demand singer across the emirate. The Irish singer has been performing in Dubai since 2008 at venues such as MusicHall and Voda Bar. Her Jazz Garden appearance is career highlight as she will use the event to perform the original song Big Blue Eyes, the single from her debut solo album, due for release soon.
MATCH INFO
What: 2006 World Cup quarter-final
When: July 1
Where: Gelsenkirchen Stadium, Gelsenkirchen, Germany
Result:
England 0 Portugal 0
(Portugal win 3-1 on penalties)
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
The alternatives
• Founded in 2014, Telr is a payment aggregator and gateway with an office in Silicon Oasis. It’s e-commerce entry plan costs Dh349 monthly (plus VAT). QR codes direct customers to an online payment page and merchants can generate payments through messaging apps.
• Business Bay’s Pallapay claims 40,000-plus active merchants who can invoice customers and receive payment by card. Fees range from 1.99 per cent plus Dh1 per transaction depending on payment method and location, such as online or via UAE mobile.
• Tap started in May 2013 in Kuwait, allowing Middle East businesses to bill, accept, receive and make payments online “easier, faster and smoother” via goSell and goCollect. It supports more than 10,000 merchants. Monthly fees range from US$65-100, plus card charges of 2.75-3.75 per cent and Dh1.2 per sale.
• 2checkout’s “all-in-one payment gateway and merchant account” accepts payments in 200-plus markets for 2.4-3.9 per cent, plus a Dh1.2-Dh1.8 currency conversion charge. The US provider processes online shop and mobile transactions and has 17,000-plus active digital commerce users.
• PayPal is probably the best-known online goods payment method - usually used for eBay purchases - but can be used to receive funds, providing everyone’s signed up. Costs from 2.9 per cent plus Dh1.2 per transaction.
